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eBook: Tales of a Government That Works
AUTHOR ARCHIVES
Tammy Flanagan
Tammy Flanagan is the senior benefits director for the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc., which conducts federal retirement planning workshops and seminars. She has spent 25 years helping federal employees take charge of their retirement by understanding their benefits.
For more retirement planning help, tune in to "For Your Benefit," presented by the National Institute of Transition Planning Inc. live on Federal News Radio on Mondays at 10 a.m. ET on WFED AM 1500 in the Washington-metro area. Archived shows are available on NITPInc.com.
A Look Back
December 21, 2012 With all of this talk of cliffs and cuts and chains, it’s no wonder some federal employees are beginning to panic. While it’s still not clear what changes might come in the federal retirement world in 2013 as Congress and the White House seek to seal a deficit reduction deal, ...
CSRS vs. FERS, Again
December 14, 2012 It seems like the end of the year is a time for trips down memory lane. I remember exploring more than once in this column the age-old debate over which retirement system was better -- the Federal Employees Retirement System or the Civil Service Retirement System. I thought of that ...
Timing Is Everything
December 7, 2012 More than 20,000 federal employees are projected to retire at the end of 2012, according to the Office of Personnel Management. When they do, they will start as many as three engines of income. More than half of those who are planning to retire will be entitled to both a ...
Five Open Season Tips
November 30, 2012 If you’re currently employed, you surely know by now that you’re not getting a salary adjustment in January -- and if you’re retired, the cost-of-living allowance on your retirement benefit will be only 1.7 percent. You actually might be losing a little money if your health plan premiums are increasing, ...
Why Don’t You Have a Flexible Spending Account?
November 16, 2012 One big issue in retirement planning is health insurance benefits. During the federal benefits open season that runs from Nov. 12 to Dec. 10, I’ll be addressing some insurance-related issues. This week, I’ll focus on the flexible spending account program. FSAs offer employees (but not retirees) a way to set ...
Are You Ready to Apply?
November 1, 2012 Based on the 2012 numbers so far, many of you will be retiring soon. The Office of Personnel Management projected it would receive 8,000 retirement claims in August. The agency actually received 8,973. OPM projected 7,000 claims would be filed in September, but the final count was 11,952. The October ...
FEHBP and Medicare
October 25, 2012 As federal employees and retirees approach age 65 and eligibility for Medicare, questions about coverage begin to surface. Federal employees and most retirees already have excellent health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefit Program. So why would you need more health insurance just because you’re turning 65? That’s just ...
Getting the Most from Social Security
October 19, 2012 This week, the federal government announced that the cost-of-living increase for federal retirees and Social Security recipients will be 1.7 percent in 2013. That’s not a lot of money, so it may cause some retirees and those contemplating retirement to wonder about how they can get the most out of ...
Women’s Issues
October 12, 2012 For the past 15 years, the MetLife Mature Market Institute has operated a center for studying aging and longevity. In September 2011, the institute produced a study titled “Women, Retirement and the Extra-Long Life.” In conjunction with the Scripps Gerontology Center of Miami University, they studied the challenges that women ...
Who’s Getting What?
October 5, 2012 I still remember going to school and wondering how many of my classmates got an A on a test and how many got a B (like me – at least most of the time). Then, when I had children, I wondered how many other children were walking when mine were ...
